Additional materials available online

Today the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) released a revised version of its Spanish residue prevention manual Prevención de residuos de fármacos en la leche y la carne for 2013. As an area of focus for the National Dairy FARM ProgramTM, the manual can be found on the FARM Program’s website. This version was translated to Spanish from the revised 2013 Milk and Dairy Beef Drug Residue Prevention Manual, which was released in the fall.

The Prevención de residuos de fármacos en la leche y la carne is the Spanish version of the FARM Program’s concise review of appropriate antibiotic use in dairy animals. It’s a quick resource to review those antibiotics approved for dairy animals and can also be used as an educational tool for farm managers as they develop their on-farm best management practices necessary to avoid milk and meat residues.

Additions to the 2013 version include a section on avoiding potential residue violations from extra-label drug use in an unapproved class of cattle, cephalosporin extra-label use prohibitions, as well as an updated drug and test kit list. The 2013 manual includes a certificate of participation that can be signed by a producer and his/her veterinarian to demonstrate their commitment to the proper use of antibiotics.

“We know that there is increased attention to the use of medicines in livestock, and in order to maintain the ability to use those products, we have to demonstrate that we are using them properly,” said Jerry Kozak, President and CEO of NMPF. “We also know that a significant portion of the people who care for dairy cows speak Spanish, and we need to make this information available in Spanish as well as English.”

The dairy industry is committed to producing safe, abundant, and affordable milk and dairy beef of the highest quality. Healthy animals help make for safe food and disease prevention is the key to keeping cows healthy, Kozak said.

The National Dairy FARM Program was created by NMPF to demonstrate and verify that U.S. milk producers are committed to providing the highest levels of quality assurance including animal care, residue prevention, and other on-farm practices.

The Spanish manual was sponsored by Charm Sciences, IDEXX, and Pfizer Animal Health. No check-off funds were used in its development and distribution.
For more information on the National Dairy FARM Program, contact Betsy Flores at (703) 243-6111 or visit www.nationaldairyfarm.com.

The National Milk Producers Federation, based in Arlington, VA, develops and carries out policies that advance the well-being of dairy producers and the cooperatives they own. The members of NMPF’s 30 cooperatives produce the majority of the U.S. milk supply, making NMPF the voice of more than 32,000 dairy producers on Capitol Hill and with government agencies. Visit www.nmpf.org for more information.